I heard Vera walk quietly to my door and saw her shadow darken the light that leaked through the bottom of it.

  She knocked quietly against it like she always did before she cracked it open and let too much of my dark out. "Lady Greer? Have you finished your tea?"

  "It went cold." I answered and pulled my blankets over my head.

  "Would you like me to warm it for you?" Vera asked, still standing in the doorway.

  "No." I said, hoping she would understand that I wished to be left alone.

  "I will come and wake you for lunch. Three days is much too long to go without eating." She said. The door clicked behind her and I followed the sound of her steps until they became too quiet to hear.

  Vera had understood my silent request.

  She always did.

  My heart couldn't hurt if I was not awake to feel it, so I closed my eyes and let myself fall back into the unfeeling oblivion of sleep. . .

  I came back to myself with a slow breath and felt the remnant dust of my fireworks scratching against the bottom of my outstretched legs. The bathwater had not lost all of its heat, but it was cold enough that I knew I wished to leave it.

  If I wished, I could have heated it again, but I just did not see the point. The memory of whoever Greer was had been nothing but her laying in a dark room and then going back to sleep. My recent trips to the well considered, it had been one of the more eventful memories I had witnessed.

  When I could think of a name and find myself in the name-bearers' memories a moment later, the thing at the bottom of The Well had been the only explanation for the short cut. Ever since I had denied the metallic rhythm of its call for me when I had been on the stone table of the colosseum, it had denied me any assistance.

  That left me to wander The Well with nothing to guide me to anything useful.

  A woman waking and then sleeping again, a heated argument over what color dress a sorceress wanted to wear, long moments of complete silence in an empty room, those were the thrilling memories I had lived through as of late.

  Several weeks before we had left Erosette, I had opened the yellow bound book that belonged to a sorceress named Apple. Curiosity alone had brought my hands to the first page within it and I had lived through what must have been her first memory. A mind bending wash of colors and sounds had met me. They had waxed and waned like a particularly quick moon and managed to make recognizable shapes once or twice.

  When I had returned and learned that I had temporarily forgotten how to speak, I had decided that throwing my mind into the memories of a small child was not the best idea.

  There was no use in returning to The Well, but I still had to figure out how to glamor my own aura and I wouldn't if I let myself prune in the bath any longer.

  I opened my eyes and pushed my damp hair behind my ears just in time to see a something smack against the still steamy window.

  Blood splayed across the glass from the impact and stained the white steam red.

  I threw myself back against the warm wood of the bath, trying to find space where there was none.

  The window slid open. A mess of blood and fur bulged through the small gap. It fell to the closed toilet with a wet thump and the lifeless black eye of what had once been a rabbit stared straight at me.

  Anna called to me from outside the bathroom. "Are you back? I didn't hear-"

  I screamed.

  White claws gripped the window sill and a demon pulled itself into my sight.

  Its fur, a mottled pattern of every shade of blue, was darkened by the blood of the slain rabbit. Long fangs barred and its deep blue eyes wildly wide, my familiar dragged his big body into the bathroom.

  "What the fuck are you doing?" I shouted at Sam in an anger that was all my own. The dead stare of the rabbit was too much, but no matter how hard I tried I could not keep my eyes from snapping back to it.

  "What is your name?" Sam demanded in his low voice that shook the room like thunder.

  "Autumn Aubrey." I shouted and stood.

  "Who is Autumn Aubrey?" He asked his second question. A gust of wind blew through the open window and brought a flurry of snow with it. The iron scent of blood filled my nose and cold needled against my bare skin.

  My answer came quick and high as I ripped a towel from where it hung on the door and tried to shield myself from the frigid air. "An underwitch of Zenithcidel. Daughter of Idensyn Aubrey. Thief and possessor of The Well. Debtor to The Circle of the Nine Mothers."

  "Who was Autumn Aubrey?" Sam asked his final question as he leapt down from the window seal to where his slain prey lay.

  "Greer," I spat and turned away from the gory sight. I had answered his questions. He would have to answer mine. "Again, what the fuck are you doing?"

  "You were early. My hunt had not met its end." Sam said simply.

  "Could you not have left it outside?" I demanded as the bathroom door clicked open and Anna peaked her head inside.

  "No." Sam said simply.

  "Why not?" I shouted as a shiver ran through my body.

  "It would have fled." Sam said simply.

  Just as I had, Anna screamed at the sight of the rabbit.

  The sound of her fright stirred it back to life.

  The poor creature bolted from where it had been thrown and made a mad dash around the small space of the bathroom.

  Anna and I screamed together and tripped over each as we tried to get through the door. I dragged a flood of water out of the bath behind me and lost my towel somewhere before we both threw ourselves onto the bed.

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  The rabbit was quick on our heels, running desperately around the room in search of an escape that didn't exist. Sam stalked lazily into the room with his eyes locked on his prey

  The door to the outside swung open and a flurry of snow blew through it.

  Anna and I screamed again and threw our arms around one another.

  The gleaming tip of a pearlescent blade slowly crossed the threshold and gave way to the rest of its length. Two hands of a man clutched its white handle and their owner slowly stepped into inside with a predatory grace.

  “Autumn Aubrey?” Alexei spoke calmly, his voice low. He glanced at Anna and I briefly before searching the room with his one white eye.

  The rabbit came sprinting out from behind the chests under the window. It ran right past Sam and through the legs of my guard without either of them so much as looking at it.

  Another flurry of snow blew in behind Alexei and swirled around him. His stark white hair was down and hung past his shoulders in a colorless curtain. The loose fitting robe he wore on his upper body was dark blue and open. What looked similar to the tights I had been wearing not long before hugged his muscular body and made him seem like an animate silhouette

  Sam stood opposite him, back arched and fur on end. Small arcs of yellow lightning circled around his clawed paws and ran all the way to the tip of his tail before repeating their path.

  “Begone.” Sam thundered at Alexei. The windows rattled in their frame and splatters of the long cold hot chocolate came shaking out of the pot atop the stove.

  For a brief moment that felt much longer than it actually was, I thought my familiar and the man that had been charged with guarding me would come to blows.

  It was the third time in the small amount of days since we had left Erosette that something similar had happened.

  Alexei moved first. He relaxed out of his stance and sheathed his pearlescent sword in one smooth motion without breaking his gaze with Sam. “I see that there is no threat here.”

  Anna shook her head and looked at me as if everything that had happened had only just caught up with her.

  “Hey! Get the fuck out of here! You can’t just barge in whenever you want to!” She yelled as she threw a blanket over me to cover my bare body.

  Alexei held one hand towards her as she stomped towards him, the other resting on the end of his sword.

  “Peace, Lady Anna. I have done what I am meant to do,” He said, his voice neither friendly nor unfriendly. The neutral tone he took only made the weight of his words feel heavier. “If I ever believe she is in mortal danger again, I will take the time to knock.”

  “Good,” Anna said as she crossed her arms and glared up at him. She shook her head again. "Wait. That's not what I meant."

  Alexei turned on his heels and left the room, closing the door quietly behind him.

  Sam relaxed once he was gone and the arcs of lightning dissipated over his fur.

  All I could do was sit there and shiver.

  Anna relocked the door and pressed her back against it. A small smile came to her face as she looked over the mess that our place had become.

  “This makes you happy?” I asked, looking over the snow, water, and bloody paw prints that dirtied the wooden floor.

  “Seeing him get all tense and scared looking, it makes me laugh,” She answered and looked down at my familiar. “You really don’t like that guy do you?”

  At her words, Sam let out a pained growl and raked his paws over his head.

  “Careful. He is sensitive.” I said as I took my night clothes out from under my pillow and slipped into them. The first time Sam had laid eyes on Alexei, he run off into the woods and I had not seen him for nearly a full day. The questions I had asked when he had finally shown back up had sent him into spasms.

  Many times over his service to me I had brought him to the barriers in his mind, but none before had hurt him as badly.

  The cold air that my familiar and my guard had both let in brought me back to the warm spot in front of the stove.

  “I am not sensitive. The two of you are careless.” Sam growled with his fangs barred and eyes still shut.

  “Careless? You brought a half dead rabbit inside and now there is blood everywhere!” Anna shouted.

  Sam bent his big blue body around and hissed at Anna. “Silence, mortal! If you cannot do it yourself I will take your tongue!”

  “No, you won’t. And what have I told you about yelling at Anna," I lowered myself and found a shaky balance on the balls of my feet. My familiar had grown so large, that his contemptuous blue eyes were even with mine when I knelt. "Have you thought about what I offered?"

  Sam stared back at me for a long moment before he stood. "I will finish my hunt. Release me."

  Evidently not. I thought to myself as I went and opened the door for him.

  He was perfectly capable of doing it himself. Only moments before, he had climbed to a second story window and opened it with a still alive rabbit in his mouth. Even so, I of all people knew how it felt to be bound against my will and it cost me little to indulge him in his small acts of rebellion.

  I knew he had not forgotten what I had asked either. As confusing and frustrating as he could be, he would tell me when he came to a decision. There were no barriers in my mind that hurt me if I met them, but I don't know how willing I would be to throw myself against them if there were.

  Sam went after his rabbit and I locked the door behind him. Anna came back into the main room from the bathroom after closing the window

  "Well, if our relationship is anything to go by, you'll be in love with Alexei by the end of the year," She joked. "Did you find anything in The Well?"

  I shrugged and took my towel from where it had fallen off me in my fright. Carefully lowering myself as to not put too much pressure on my toe, I began to dry the water off the floor. "Nothing with The Mothers and the thing still won't talk to me. I just wandered around for a while, my head wasn't really in my head I guess."

  "I don't blame you. You've got a big day tomorrow." Anna said as she brought her towel down and helped me. We only had the two, they would need to be washed out before Anna could take her bath.

  "The last one I'll ever have." I sighed, the reality of what was to come settling in my stomach like a stone.

  Anna put her hand on mine and met my eyes. "I'm going to go into town while you are gone tomorrow. See my mom, buy things for soup, get some wine. We can't live here having only two towels. Is there anything you want?"

  I shook my head. "I don't understand."

  "It's a lot colder here too. You'll need something warmer to sleep in or I'll get another blanket for the bed." She continued.

  "Anna," I said seriously. "We don't know if we will-"

  "It would be nice if I could find a little table and some chairs, but I don't know how I would get it back here all by myself." She cut me off, completely ignoring what I had tried to say.

  I pushed myself over to her and pushed her down. "You are trying to make a point. Just say it, I'm tired."

  "I'm going because we need things. I'm going because I need to see my mom. She won't admit it, but she gets lonely staying in the medery all by herself. I'm going because I know you better than anyone and there is no doubt in my mind that you are going to find a way through this. So stop arguing, lets eat dinner, and you think about anything you need from town. Got it?" She said in one long breath.

  I wanted to disagree. I wanted to tell her that she was wrong and that I was going to fail miserably, but I kept those terrible thoughts to myself.

  "Got it." I agreed.

  She helped me up as she stood and took the short trip to our bed. "Don't be mad, but I opened your box. I've got good news."

  "Oh?" I asked as I followed the tracks she had left on the still damp floor and went after her.

  Anna turned around and pressed a tiny white dress against her front. It was made of cotton and was reminiscent of the maiden's dresses I had worn frequently in Erosette. She and I were of a height, but with the straps of the dress held over her shoulders, it barely concealed the places that clothes were supposed to cover.

  "You've got to be at the gates an hour after dawn. You're supposed to wear this and your shoes. No jewelry, no jackets, no tights." She said.

  I could see the little note that said the things she was telling me. I did not mind that she had opened it, I would much rather hear her say it than have to read it.

  "What is the good news?" I asked as I smoothed the soft fabric out over her stomach.

  "I think you are going to be inside. There is no way they leave you out in the cold wearing this. You would freeze to death."